Comparison of the hearing threshold measured by manual pure-tone and by self-recording (Békésy) audiometry

The hearing threshold of 115 subjects aged 25--63 years and working on a shipyard were determined both by Békésy sweep audiometry and by conventional manual octave pure-tone audiometry at fixed audiometric frequencies. The attenuation rate was 2.5 dB s-1 with pulsed-tone presentation and the sweep time from 0.25 to 10 kHz was 400 s for the Békésy audiometer. Manual pure-tone audiometry was performed in 5-dB steps. The Békésy method gave the lowest values for the hearing thresholds. It has been possible to find a useful linear relation between pure-tone and Békésy hearing thresholds. With the help of a retest experiment, it has been established, that the standard deviations of hearing thresholds obtained under similar conditions in a pure-tone investigation are about twice as large as those obtained in a Békésy investigation.